Gulutzan shares his take on Jagr
Gulutzan offers some insights into Czech’s star’s astonishing career
Jaromir Jagr’s career stats are astounding. Astonishing. Honestly, hard to wrap your head around.
And that’s been the case for several years already.
Calgary Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan provided a reminder of that after Monday’s practice at the Saddledome, sharing a terrific tale from his stint as Jagr’s boss in Dallas during a lockout-shortened campaign, a knee-slapper from March 29, 2013, that co-stars Eric Nystrom.
“Eric is a throwback. Just like Matty Tkachuk, he was raised in an NHL locker-room and he’s got a lot of pizzazz,” Gulutzan said, setting the scene.
“And for whatever reason, he nicknamed Jags in Dallas. He nicknamed him ‘Jimmy.’ For the whole year, it caught on and Jags wasn’t Jags. It was ‘Jimmy.’
“Eric played with him a little bit on his line, at times. In Dallas, he had his 1,000th assist, Jaromir did. So the lights are flashing on the board — ‘1,000! 1,000! 1,000!’ Of course, Ny isn’t aware exactly that he got 1,000 assists. He’s sitting beside Jaromir and he goes, ‘Jimmy, do you have 1,000 points now?!?’
“And (Jagr) looks at Eric, almost disgusted, and he goes, ‘I had 1,000 points 10 years ago. That’s assists.’ “That puts it in perspective.” Sure does. Now employed by the Florida Panthers, Jagr arrives at the Saddledome for Tuesday’s clash against the Flames (7 p.m., Sportsnet West/Sportsnet 960 The Fan) with 757 goals and 1,138 assists on his eye-popping resume.
Just a few sleeps before Christmas, the 44-year-old right-winger climbed into second on the NHL’s all-time scoring charts, leapfrogging Mark Messier with his 1,888th point.
Only The Great One, Wayne Gretzky, has piled up more.
Moose, Mr. Hockey, Mario … All in his rear-view mirror.
“Not that I don’t pay attention, but it’s not my No. 1 goal,” Jagr said of his lofty perch among the most prolific point-producers in NHL history. “I always believe I have good enough talent and if I work hard, those numbers are going to come. It’s just a matter of time.
“But once you concentrate on the numbers, then it’s not going to come. You’ve gotta concentrate on something else, and those numbers kind of show up sooner or later, if you work hard.”
Jagr has never shied away from hard work.
His late-night workouts and solo skates are the stuff of legend.
During his days in Dallas, where Jagr logged only 34 appearances for the Stars before being swapped to the Boston Bruins before the deadline, Gulutzan would sometimes hear the clinking of weights at strange hours. It would be No. 68.
Not long ago, Flames speedster Michael Frolik – raised in Jagr’s home city of Kladno, Czech Republic, and his teammate at the 2014 Sochi Olympics – spied a video of his countryman, well, wait ’til you hear this …
“He’s shooting a medicine ball on the wall and has the (weighted) vest on and things like that,” Frolik said.
“It sometimes looks a little bit funny, but I guess it works for him.” Seems to, yeah. “To be able to coach him for a year and just to see how good he was and the passion there still for the game, I can see why he’s done it,” Gulutzan said. “He’s a specimen. He’s just a specimen. He’d tell me all the time, ‘I don’t know what it is, coach, I just don’t get tired.’ I think he just wanted more minutes, but he just told me that all the time – ‘I never get tired.’”
He could have been fibbing, but there’s no evidence of that yet.
Heading into Tuesday’s faceoff with the Flames, Jagr is tied for second among the Panthers with 27 points – eight goals, 19 helpers – so far this season.
Sick of being quizzed about his future, he recently joked he’ll play until he’s 50, maybe 55.
“It’s a great lifestyle,” Jagr said after the Panthers practised Monday at the Saddledome. Pause. “You make a living at a game.” Bleep. “It’s a game. I know it’s hard, we have to give up a lot, but it’s still a game,” Jagr said. “There is no better living. As a kid, you want to play. Everybody wants to play. “We are lucky, so why change it?” And why stop now? “Probably the most impressive thing with Jags, for me, of all those physical skills – the size and the strength and the hands — is his hockey IQ is off the charts,” Gulutzan praised. “His hockey smarts and what he sees on the ice is just way above. We clipped some clips, I remember back in Dallas, that we sat and watched as a coaching staff going, ‘Oh my God, how did he even do that?’
“With his strength on the puck and his hockey IQ … He can score. He can pass. He can do it all.”
I always believe I have good enough talent and if I work hard, those numbers are going to come.